A stairwell of a Scranton Parking Authority garage was littered Tuesday with debris, including human feces, a used condom, beer cans and bedding.

A ground-floor elevator vestibule in the same garage also had human feces on the floor, while its top-floor elevator vestibule also was strewn with beer cans, trash and a pair of crumpled sweatsocks.

The unsanitary conditions were unacceptable, though not necessarily unusual, said Mike Washo, the court-appointed receiver who on Sept. 11 took control of the SPA's five parking garages and hired an outside firm, Central Parking, to operate them.

After learning of the stairwell debris from The Times-Tribune, Mr. Washo said he immediately alerted Central Parking, which dispatched someone to clean up the mess. Mr. Washo also said he spoke to a former SPA staffer who said having parking facilities defiled in such ways was neither new nor unusual.

The bedding material included several quilts rolled up and tied with neckties that were stuffed and stacked between a standpipe and a wall in the stairwell.

"As it gets colder and as it gets rainy, people go inside and such unsanitary conditions, such as human feces, have been found in the past," Mr. Washo said. "We'll do our best to ensure there's a cleanup as quickly as possible."

The stairwell and elevator vestibules in question are at the Mulberry Street access of the Linden Street parking garage, which also is known as the Scranton Parking Authority Garage, and that spans a block between Linden and Mulberry streets.

However, Craig Pawlik, secretary/treasurer of Teamsters Local 229, which had 12 of its members furloughed from SPA on Sept. 12 and 13, said he did not believe that parking-garage facilities had regularly been used as toilets or for sexual liaisons. Union maintenance workers used high-pressure hoses to clean the stairwells, and an issue of having to clean up feces or used condoms had never been raised by employees in grievances or in direction letters from SPA management, he said.

"I have never heard of anything like that going on" from the now-furloughed maintenance workers who used to be responsible for cleaning up the parking garages, Mr. Pawlik said. "If our people were told to clean that (feces, condoms) up, we definitely would have gotten a call here (at Local 229 headquarters)."

Asked if there is a gap in maintenance at the parking garage that contributed to the dirty stairwell and elevator vestibules, Mr. Washo said no.

"There's no major gap in anything here. There were eight different people from Central here last week, and there's two people on ground from Central right now," Mr. Washo said. "I guarantee the garages will be at least as clean as they were before, if not cleaner."

Mr. Washo said that during his first walk-through of parking garages as receiver - before Central Parking was hired - he found a dead pigeon in a stairwell in one of the garages, "and it didn't look like fresh kill either," meaning it had been there awhile and had not been removed.

"These are ongoing issues, and I will monitor and set the bar very high," Mr. Washo said. "Hundreds of people go in during the day, and some are not patrons, and some have habits that fall outside the societal norms. It means we just have to be extra vigilant to clean up after them and where possible monitor for their presence. The garages are open 24-7. People have been doing this for as long as there have been garages here."

Mr. Washo continued: "This behavior is infantile, where people are satisfying biological urges and you have to clean up after them, and you're not always going to be right there when people satisfy that biological urge. No customer of ours should have to encounter that. No excuses here. We accept responsibility to ensure the garages are maintained and this will be Central's responsibility."

Efforts to reach representatives of Central Parking were unsuccessful.

The 12 furloughed SPA employees included six involved in parking meter enforcement/collections who have been continuing to do their jobs but have been reporting out of City Hall since Friday; and six parking-garage maintenance workers who have remained furloughed while Central Parking has advertised on its website to fill those positions, Mr. Pawlik said.

Under SPA, garage cashier positions had been eliminated in recent years as garages were automated.

"We found it interesting they are advertising for booth workers but the booths are automated," Mr. Pawlik said.

The contract of the 12 employees was to have expired July 5, but due to the uncertainty of the SPA situation, the contract was extended to Nov. 5 in an agreement between the union and SPA, Mr. Pawlik said.

He said the union had not been contacted before the furloughs were issued, but should have been because the union has a collective bargaining agreement with SPA. A key contract provision makes the contract binding on "successors, administrators, executors and assigns."

Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com Grievances rejected

The Scranton Parking Authority on Tuesday rejected three grievances filed by Teamsters Local 229, which represents 12 employees who were furloughed by SPA last week, a union official said.

The union on Friday filed grievances that allege furloughs issued last Wednesday and Thursday violate the employees' contracts, and seek back wages/benefits and restoration of the jobs, said Craig Pawlik, secretary-treasurer of the local.

The grievances were denied Tuesday by SPA due to a "lack of work and funds," Mr. Pawlik said.

A court-appointed receiver on Sept. 11 took control of the SPA's five parking garages and hired an outside firm, Central Parking, to operate them. The SPA board still exists, but has no funds. Mr. Pawlik questioned SPA's citing of a lack of work as a reason for denying the union grievances, because Central Parking has advertised to fill the parking-garage maintenance jobs of six furloughed employees.

The union will appeal the rejection of the grievances, Mr. Pawlik said.

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